STUDENTS LEFT IN COLD AT SCHOOL
Esterhazy school has problems
The provincial education ministry believes it has a fix for problems at an Esterhazy elementary school that had students working in cold classrooms with high carbon dioxide levels.
“You can’t educate students in a classroom where you’re telling parents that they have to send their kids to school with jackets they’re going to have to wear during class, that you’re opening windows during the wintertime. We don’t do that in Saskatchewan,” Education Minister Don Morgan said Monday after the issue was raised during question period.
For three years, Good Spirit School Division’s strategy has been to use portable heaters in P.J. Gillen School while keeping classroom doors open and cracking a window to introduce fresh air. Staff and students were encouraged to dress in layers so they could adjust to the school’s temperatures.
Morgan said the division didn’t have the issue at the top of its list for maintenance because it felt opening windows was sufficient. He believes the ministry now has an affordable, permanent and satisfactory solution in purchasing decentralized ventilation units (that resemble closets) for each classroom, to be installed during the summer. The price tag of about $1.3 million will be covered by $800,000 from the province, with the remaining $500,000 coming out of the division’s reserves.
According to a Jan. 5 letter from the school division’s facilities manager, the estimated cost of installing a new heating and ventilation system, along with necessary upgrades, was $5 million.
In 2012, the division identified an airborne contamination problem and abandoned the school’s heating and ventilation system, regularly monitoring the air quality since.
A test in January of this year, with results sent to Sunrise Health Region, revealed CO2 levels in the building that are “higher than normal acceptable levels with no current cause for health concerns,” according to a Feb. 10 letter from the school division to parents and staff. However, the health region noted that individuals may report drowsiness and lethargy which “have the potential to negatively impact productivity and achievement.”
The issue brought four concerned parents from the Ezterhazy area to the Legislative Building. Their kids have complained about working in 15C classrooms at P.J. Gillen and have developed headaches, coughs and congestion that seem to disappear the longer they’re away from the school.
“How do people sleep at night knowing they’re putting kids through that? Could you — if you had the power to change it — sleep at night, knowing you’re affecting somebody else’s kids?” said Niel Knezacek.
Though he’s worried about his kids potentially falling behind in class work because of the subpar learning conditions, he just wants his kids to get through the kindergarten to Grade 5 school and into high school.
His wife, Nicole, said she’s concerned about the consequences for their kids 10 years into the future.
NDP Leader Cam Broten told reporters he was disappointed that after three years without a heating and ventilation system, concerned parents had to drive more than 200 kilometres each way to get the government to develop a solution regarding basic needs.
“Government has known about this for some time, but it’s only when they catch wind that parents are coming and raising very legitimate concerns that they have a cheque to sign,” Broten said.